Hearst, True Ventures Invest $1.5 Million In Casual Gamer VoxPop

This story was written by Tameka Kee. Pop culture-focused casual games firm VoxPop.TV has raised $1.5 million in a second round of funding. Hearst Interactive Media led the round, along with participation from previous backer True Ventures; the S.F.-based startup has raised roughly $3.5 million in total since 2007. It plans to use the new funding to build out its game development platform.

VoxPop.TV's games are lightweight fare that bloggers and other publishers can embed on their sites; *Netflix* has a Summer Movie Trivia game, for example, while a CNET-sponsored Apple Trivia Quiz asks players questions about Steve Jobs and the rest of the team.

Destinations like myLifetime.com and AARP.com are increasingly using gaming sections to drive up page-views and increase time spent; VoxPop.TV co-founder Bill Armistead said the prospect of running casual games across Hearst's network of digital properties made the investment that much more beneficial. Competitors include Arkadium (which has already developed games for Hearst properties like Seventeen.com), PopJax and Pangea Media. Release.